The wrong side of history.

Back in the 1980s, after leaving the Royal Navy, I worked at the National Coal Board for a few years while also working as a freelance illustrator for the press. Ironically during that employment, the 1984 Pit Strike occured and a tactic called the Domino Strategy was employed by the Union whereby pickets were sent out to intimidate working miners. It was a tactic I totally deplored and which through my art I made well known.

Coming from a mining family, (my Foster dad worked in the pits) I felt compromised in that I was pro better conditions and pay for workers but totally against what turned out to be bullying aggressive tactics used by those elected to protect workers rights. Predictably and sadly such tactics spelled the end of a proud industry. Here are two illustrations of many that were published at that time; in the second one I have depicted myself as a green observer on the wrong side of history.